The 2027 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion – Southeast Region will be held March 5-7, 2027 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.
View the Full CFP here: AAR-SE-CFP-2027
Access the Submission Form here!
Deadline for Submissions: October 1, 2026. Note that each proposal should indicate first and second choice for possible units.
Theme: Religion, Health, and Wellness
In 1966, at a press conference for the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Martin Luther King, Jr. stated: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” 60 years later, more than half of humanity lacks access to health care resources and are subject to social, economic, and environmental conditions that result in undue suffering and premature death. The accelerating degradation of the environment, state sponsored violence, racism, sexism, poverty, and colonial domination all contribute to health care injustices and compromise the health and wellness of individuals, communities, and entire populations. We invite research that explores the intersection of religious traditions, ideas, practices, and organizations and the health and wellness of individuals and society. We understand health and wellness in the broadest sense to include mental, physical, emotional, intellectual, social, environmental, and spiritual dimensions.
We invite research that addresses topics such as:
- The relationship between religion, the environment and health
- Religious practices that promote individual and collective health and wellbeing. – yoga, meditation, psychedelics, music, dance, art, rituals.
- Religious epistemologies and practices that orient us toward care for self and all our relations.
- Decolonizing religious studies to consider other modalities for being and living as human beings.
- Religion, war, genocide, and ecocide
- Climate heating (plastic saturated ecosystems and humans) and human health
- Health as a moral-religious-spiritual problem and solution
- Health as a spiritual-material reality – what do religions offer?
- Religion, racism, heterosexism, nationalism, ethnosupremacism, commodification as obstacles to health.
- Visions of a healthy society and global community – what do religions offer – community, purpose, meaning.
Regional Undergraduate Student Award
All undergraduate papers emailed to RELSERegion@gmail.com by the December 15, 2026 deadline are eligible for the undergraduate award. See full instructions below.
Registration and more information will be available closer to the conference dates.